“When are you going to tell me where we’re headed?”

Alondra taps her foot behind me, almost huffing at my blatant obtuseness. By essentially refusing to tell her where my next target is, I can test to see if she’s been giving me away. If she has been, it would explain her insistence, but I can’t be too sure yet.

“We’re almost there.”

“Where?”

“I’ll tell you when we’ve made it that far.”

“This is exhausting, Luna.”

“No, not exhausting. Exhaustive.”

“What on earth does that mean?”

“We’re here! Introducing ApocoV, a rundown weapons manufacturing plant!”

“Rundown?”

“Yeah, used to be owned by some government-backed science company before they shuttered their doors and Bijabers swooped in. Was called Atlas Research or something according to Luna’s Research.”

Alondra stood staring, a look of disappointment on her face.

“Get it? I used the same… never mind. Inside this building is the elusive Hazmonaught, the last on the long list of men before Bijabers.”

“What’s he all about?”

“Weapons. Sort of a fitting place.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little dangerous walking into a place lined with weapons to take down a man whose specialty is weapons?”

“Maybe it’s the pain pills talking, but no, not really. I crashed my ship into a moving train. I infiltrated the top-secret headquarters of a multi-national espionage organization. I did some other third thing. I was in the same zoo as Jack Aaron when he was arrested. Still not totally sure what happened there. All to say, the danger isn’t a factor anymore.”

This clearly wasn’t the answer Alondra was looking for, but she let my last statement linger.

“Good luck, Luna.”

“Thanks. Let’s bounce, Freckles.”

With me armed to the teeth and Freckles armed to the literal teeth, we take the steps down the ramp of the Constellation and wind up in the dilapidated parking lot of ApocoV. Our footsteps echo off the building ahead, which ricochet off and hit the ship behind us. The air is still, and the mist that would soon turn to fog is only just starting to form.

Just me, you, and Freckles, I think, directed at the man who will lose his life tonight. No Orion and the Clockwork.

The main entrance had cracked glass scattered around, from both the revolving door and the windows beside it. I took careful steps inside, while Freckles’ heavy paws simply ground the glass to dust. The welcome room was groggy and unwelcoming.

Across the room, a man stands at an elevator door. He’s wearing sunglasses and has a rifle of some sort holstered, but otherwise doesn’t seem to be making any moves.

Just in case, I raise my pistol at him, and he raises his hands. “I’ll be honest, Ms. Blood Moon Pirate ma’am, I don’t really care if you get down to my boss. It’s about time this organization crumbled.”

“That’s a refreshing outlook, unnamed goon number 473. Drop the gun and walk away, and don’t come back.”

He does as instructed, placing his rifle on the ground, and steps through the shattered revolving door. I wait a few moments to be sure his footsteps are headed away, and press the button to the elevator to call it. A good minute later, it dings, and we begin the descent to floor 7B.

How do I know he’s at floor 7B? Well, I don’t. Honestly, I’m just assuming the big guy’s going to be in the lowest level of the building. If not, I’ll have to work my way through.

The elevator door eventually opens, revealing an unpassable wall of rubble directly in the way. There are no lights on behind it, as if the whole floor was decimated.

I guess on to the next floor, 6B.

When that door opens, once again, I’m met with rubble.

5B. Rubble.

4B. Rubble.

3B. The door opens to a large, damp, cave-like room with signs of construction everywhere. Wooden boards carve paths across a massive hole in the middle of the room, and a single set of lights illuminates an office door all the way at the other end, slightly ajar.

I walk up to the massive hole in the floor and test one of the boards. Footsteps in the settled dust reveal others have walked the same boards across the pit. Should I take the chance?

Whether or not I should, I do. At first, the board bends and threatens to slip, but it holds my weight well. I choose not to look down at the black abyss below me, and safely make it to the other side without worry. Freckles stays back, more likely to snap the wood than I am.

I quietly approach the door, but I quickly find it’s pointless. A single flickering light illuminates the small space inside, which contains a control panel for something simply labeled “ADTV2.” The electronic screen flashes some sort of code, and in green lettering, the phrase “ready for unit test” appears, along with “Press any key to begin.”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

You know what they say about curiosity. I press the button, and the computer whirs itself to life, loudly beeping and processing whatever ADTV2 is. All the green on the screen immediately switches to oranges and reds, and out in the main room, a bright light appears from the ceiling.

Something tells me we have to get out of this room.

I rush across the wooden bridge, and Freckles and I both run to the elevator, pressing buttons to head back up.

2B. Rubble.

1B. Quite literally the last basement floor. A row of condensed office areas greets us, all very dusty and with a little bit of cracked flooring. Whatever happened at this place to cause everything to crumble must’ve been pretty severe. I’ll bet that’s why the parking lot was so messed up, too.

“Who’s there?” a voice calls out from one of the offices. It’s not one of power or control—just fear.

“I’m just visiting,” I say, raising my pistol.

“I find that hard to believe,” the voice says. “You’re the Blood Moon Pirate, aren’t you?”

“Caught me red-handed.”

“Please. I know why you’re here. I beg of you not to do it.”

“That’s a tall request coming from you, Hazmo—”

I’m met face-to-face with a tall, scraggly looking nerd with no weapons. “Hazmonaught?”

“Yeah. I know, you were expecting someone a little more befitting of the name.”

“You’re Hazmonaught? The one that’s killed like hundreds of people and is the weapon mastermind?”

“Well, I never killed anyone. At least, not directly. My people did, my weapons did, et cetera.”

“Why are you here?”

“Hiding from you. Clearly didn’t work. Also trying to finish off my big plan before you finish me off.”

“What’s your big plan?”

“Well, I was aiming to have that laser taken care of before it destroys the whole facility again. One big hiccup in the code and suddenly you lose five of your seven floors in your underground base. At least the laser floor was still usable.”

“Did this laser happen to have a console saying ‘unit test ready’ or something like that?”

He looks up at me. “What did you do?”

“I turned it on.”

His face contorts from fear to pure dread, igniting my own fight or flight reflexes.

“We have to run,” he says, bolting up from his chair and zooming past me.

“We?”

“Well, I didn’t figure you’d want to be left down here when this thing goes up in smoke.”

“No. Freckles and I are leaving. You are staying here to witness the crumbling of the whole building.”

“Why?”

“You’re Hazmonaught. You’ve killed hundreds!”

“No, my people and my weapons have kill—”

Bang. He drops in pain, clutching his lower leg.

“That’s not a technicality you’re getting away with, Hazmonaught.”

I step past him as he cries out in pain and fear, ignoring his helpless sorrow. The last thing I hear as the elevator door closes is him begging me to carry him to the elevator.

We climb to the surface in silence, forced to deal with the cruelty of my actions. Should I have done that? Was it worth it?

Yeah, it was. His physical appearance doesn’t mean he’s not one of the worst people on the planet.

Ding. The elevator hits the top floor again, and I calmly step out into the welcome room and its unwelcoming aura. After a few more feet, I can feel the rocking of the explosives underground, slightly lurching the ground and loudly cracking the foundation of the building.

“Meow.”

“I know. Insane timing on our part.”

Crash. A loud metallic noise sounds off outside, which then translate into heavy metal footsteps.

No way.

No.

It can’t be.

I peek through the window, and sure enough, Orion and the Clockwork have landed. They’re on the opposite side of the parking lot of the Constellation, but slowly approaching the building.

I step out, making sure they notice me.

“It’s over, dude,” I say, raising my hands. “Hazmonaught’s gone.”

“So that’s it, then?” Orion asks, still waking forward.

“That’s it. No more hunting the Bijabers gang in Carmsborough.”

“There’s no more to hunt.”

“Precisely. You can let me go. My job is done.”

“And what about Bijabers?”

“He’s not in Carmsborough.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ve never left Carmsborough.”

“Would you?”

“I’m not sure my ship could make the trip.”

“You’re not answering my question.”

“I’m out of your jurisdiction in that case. Don’t you worry about a thing, bud. See you later, Orion.”

I turn around and walk off toward the ship. He stands there, watching all the way until the ship takes off. He had every opportunity to try and confront me? Why didn’t he?

Maybe it was just too late to worry about it anymore. Maybe he knows it’s pointless now.

It’s about time.

\-----_____-----/

“We’re here,” I call out, turning off the engine of the Constellation.

“Where’s here?” Alondra asks, coming up the stairs to join me in the cockpit.

“Carmsborough Commerce District.”

“Why?”

“I’m dropping you off.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think you know exactly what I mean, Alondra. Every time you know where we’re going, Orion and the Clockwork end up showing up.”

Alondra stands there for a moment as a look of confusion grows on her face.

“What do you mean?” she repeats.

“You’re telling Orion where I’m going.”

“No, I’m not.”

“This didn’t start happening until I invited you to join me. Not once. He never caught on, and the earliest he’d get to a scene was an hour after I’d already left, same as the police.”

“I didn’t do this, Luna.”

“Remember three hours ago, when I told you where we were right when we got there? And then how Orion was an hour behind on that? Or when he knew I was going to be at that church? Or during that airship fight? It’s all a little too convenient.”

“I didn’t do this!”

“Then prove it.”

“I can’t prove that I didn’t do this, Luna. The burden of proof is on you.”

“You know what I think, Alondra? I think that you got scared when I came back from fighting that other vigilante, and you decided you wanted to stop me. That would explain why he didn’t show up when I went for P-Man, because you didn’t know I did that, because I did it earlier than planned.”

“Respectfully, you sound insane right now, Luna.”

“You don’t get to say that!” I yell. It hurts at first, but I don’t care. She looks hurt, confused. “You don’t get to say that. Nobody gets to call me crazy. I am the only damn person in Carmsborough who isn’t. Who sees the truth. Who is helping. And you’re going against me. That means you need to leave.”

“Luna, I didn’t mean…”

“Leave, Alondra.”

“It wasn’t me, Luna.”

“He knew my name, Alondra.”

She once again remains silent, soaking in the new information. She knows she’s been had. The game is up.

“He knew my name. There are only three people that know that: my boss, my agent friend, and you. And you betrayed that trust that I gave you.”

“I’m not going to stand here and take this anymore,” she says, grabbing a jacket from a rack. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Luna, but you need to find help. Before you kill yourself. Goodbye, Luna.”

She walks out the door, leaving me in the hollowness that was slowly filling the room.

I don’t even know what to say. What to think. I’m so pissed. Before I know it, my foot connects with the wooden wall next to me, and the steel-toed boot goes right through it.

I can’t let her do this to me. I have to calm down.

My hand pushes a lever on the dashboard, and in moments, the Constellation is back up and running. There’s only one place left to go. One person left to see.

One person left to kill.

Bijabers.

I flip my compass open, check some readings, and crank the steering wheel. It’s time to head west.